The only thing
to have done was to have attached me to a rope and lowered me, and
I had never the wit to see it till that moment!

I filled my lungs, got a good hold on my rope, and once more
launched myself on the descent. As it chanced, the worst of the
danger was at an end, and I was so fortunate as to be never again
exposed to any violent concussion. Soon after I must have passed
within a little distance of a bush of wallflower, for the scent of
it came over me with that impression of reality which characterises
scents in darkness. This made me a second landmark, the ledge
being my first. I began accordingly to compute intervals of time:
so much to the ledge, so much again to the wallflower, so much more
below. If I were not at the bottom of the rock, I calculated I
must be near indeed to the end of the rope, and there was no doubt
that I was not far from the end of my own resources. I began to be
light-headed and to be tempted to let go,--now arguing that I was
certainly arrived within a few feet of the level and could safely
risk a fall, anon persuaded I was still close at the top and it was
idle to continue longer on the rock. In the midst of which I came
to a bearing on plain ground, and had nearly wept aloud. My hands
were as good as flayed, my courage entirely exhausted, and, what
with the long strain and the sudden relief, my limbs shook under me
with more than the violence of ague, and I was glad to cling to the
rope.

But this was no time to give way. I had (by God's single mercy)
got myself alive out of that fortress; and now I had to try to get
the others, my comrades. There was about a fathom of rope to
spare; I got it by the end, and searched the whole ground
thoroughly for anything to make it fast to. In vain: the ground
was broken and stony, but there grew not there so much as a bush of
furze.

'Now then,' thought I to myself, 'here begins a new lesson, and I
believe it will prove richer than the first. I am not strong
enough to keep this rope extended. If I do not keep it extended
the next man will be dashed against the precipice. There is no
reason why he should have my extravagant good luck. I see no
reason why he should not fall--nor any place for him to fall on but
my head.'

From where I was now standing there was occasionally visible, as
the fog lightened, a lamp in one of the barrack windows, which gave
me a measure of the height he had to fall and the horrid force that
he must strike me with. What was yet worse, we had agreed to do
without signals: every so many minutes by Laclas' watch another
man was to be started from the battlements. Now, I had seemed to
myself to be about half an hour in my descent, and it seemed near
as long again that I waited, straining on the rope for my next
comrade to begin. I began to be afraid that our conspiracy was
out, that my friends were all secured, and that I should pass the
remainder of the night, and be discovered in the morning, vainly
clinging to the rope's end like a hooked fish upon an angle. I
could not refrain, at this ridiculous image, from a chuckle of
laughter. And the next moment I knew, by the jerking of the rope,
that my friend had crawled out of the tunnel and was fairly
launched on his descent. It appears it was the sailor who had
insisted on succeeding me: as soon as my continued silence had
assured him the rope was long enough, Gautier, for that was his
name, had forgot his former arguments, and shown himself so
extremely forward, that Laclas had given way. It was like the
fellow, who had no harm in him beyond an instinctive selfishness.
But he was like to have paid pretty dearly for the privilege. Do
as I would, I could not keep the rope as I could have wished it;
and he ended at last by falling on me from a height of several
yards, so that we both rolled together on the ground. As soon as
he could breathe he cursed me beyond belief, wept over his finger,
which he had broken, and cursed me again. I bade him be still and
think shame of himself to be so great a cry-baby.